Try Me
by GideonGraystairs
Summary: "Stop being such a drama queen. What's so bad about having two of the most popular guys in the school vying for your attention?"


_**That awkward moment when you realize you have no idea what to call a fic. Well, anyway here's another from the 24 Fics in 24 Days Challenge I've just finished. I totally had a plan to swing this in a different direction at the end there but then I was reading the Malec fic, Homewrecker by LadyEmiMarie and things just kind of happened. Oops, story of my life.**_

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><p>"It's not <em>fair<em>," Tessa moaned, sinking into a mound of down-filled blankets as if they could drown out her troubles. Unfortunately, they were nothing more than ridiculously soft inanimate objects and could therefore do nothing to aid her with her perils. "Why does there have to be two of them?"

From her position seated at the brunette's desk with a magazine in her hands, Sophie rolled her eyes. "Stop complaining. Most girls would die to have your problem."

This did nothing to placate the female on the bed, however, who proceeded to groan like she was dying herself. "How am I supposed to _choose_?" she whined, faceplanting into the pillow.

"Oh my God!" Sophie exclaimed in response, throwing her hands into the air and slamming the magazine onto the desk before turning to fully face her friend. "If it's so hard, then _don't _choose, you idiot. It's not like single is a horrible thing to be."

Tessa didn't seem to think the same though, if the horrified expression on her face at the words was anything to go by. She wrinkled her nose at the other girl before sinking back into the pillow with another melodramatic groan. Sophie, very much not amused by her friend's tendency to be overly theatrical about all matters concerning her social life, reached out and swatted the back of her head with a little more force than necessary.

"Ow! What was that for?" Tessa demanded, jerking upright as she raised a hand to pat at her hair. Sophie gave her a hard look in response.

"Stop being such a drama queen. What's so bad about having two of the most popular guys in the school vying for your attention?"

Despite her friend's original demand, Tessa moaned, "_Everything_," and collapsed back down onto the bed. This time, Sophie kicked her.

"Fine," she snapped. "Since you're so intent on moping around about it, do allow me to share in your completely ridiculous misery by telling me what in the world is so bad about this?"

Tessa didn't even take a moment to consider her words before wailing, "You wouldn't _understand_."

"Try me," Sophie challenged, folding her long legs underneath her as she took a seat on the bed beside her despairing friend, for once glad she'd forgone her usual heels in favour of the flats Gideon had thought she might like. She didn't have the heart to tell him they were a size too big, and had therefore resigned herself to wearing them about regardless of the wonders they did to make her feet ache and blister. Just this once, she was happy she'd had a date with him earlier and had worn the shoes just to make him beam like the four year old she knew he was inside. Heels would have dug into her ass like unmovable daggers.

"It's just— I love them both so much, Sophie, and I feel like I'm not only causing misery for all three us because I can't pick one over the other, but that I'm ruining their friendship too. They're like brothers, you know. They've known each other since forever and then I come along and suddenly everything's gone to hell and I— Ugh, why does this have to be so _complicated_?" Tessa griped, flipping onto her back to give the other girl a desperate look. Sophie felt herself visibly soften at that, knowing all too well how much a seemingly hopeless love life could weigh someone down. However, if even hers had managed to work itself out and into the wonder it was now, Tessa's must have been able to do so as well.

"Tessa," she started in slowly and shifted until she was laying across the bed in much the same as her friend, their shoulders brushing as they turned their gazes to the ceiling. Cracked and falling apart but with a fresh coat of clean white paint, Sophie sometimes thought it summed the other girl up quite well. Tessa had always been known for being headstrong and impulsive with a great heart and a head almost always lost in books, and yet there were times where Sophie's close relation to her allowed her to see that everything wasn't as bright in the brunette's world as people seemed to think. There was the matter of her parents, whom she'd lost at an age too young to even remember their faces and her aunt, who had herself passed away just recently. There was her brother, too, who'd tucked tail and run the minute it became clear responsibility was going to fall on his weak shoulders. The Branwells, a family who'd had their fair share of foster children over the years, had been kind enough to take her in for the few months before she turned eighteen and moved into the bachelor apartment she and Sophie now sat in, but Sophie knew there was nothing that could replace the family Tessa had lost.

In retrospect, it was hardly surprising that she struggled so viciously with something as mundane as choosing between two of the most popular— and attractive, Sophie added when she pulled both their faces up in her mind — boys in their high school. Tessa had a deep rooted fear of hurting others, as she would indefinitely end up doing no matter what course of action she took here, so even if she had known which boy she'd rather date, she would never have been able to bring herself to act on those feelings so long as she knew the other would be hurt. It was, in the most comfortable use of the word, an issue.

Sophie felt like that might be a little too deep to dump on her friend at the moment, though, so instead she said, "There's always polyamory," fully expecting Tessa to laugh at the joke.

To put it lightly, she was therefore incredibly surprised when Tessa bolted upright with wide eyes as though suddenly coming to the most brilliant realization ever. "Sophie, you're a genius!" she yelled, bouncing up and down on the bed in childish glee. Realizing what she may have unintentionally just started, Sophie jerked upright as well with a much more panicked expression.

"That was a joke. Tessa, I was joking. Don't take that seriously, please. Tessa? Tessa, oh my god, are you calling them now? Stop! Stop, it was a joke! _Oh my God, what have I done?_"

Needless to say, the start of a shockingly successful relationship between three of the most well-known students in their school was accidently brought to life by one friend's not-so-harmless joke and the other's complete lack of understanding of the word _humour._

**_I had a lot of fun with this one, actually, as I did with all fics involving Sophie and/or Tessa in this challenge. Let me know what you thought?_**


End file.
